Rutgers, Northwestern defend deals with student protesters: 'We had to get the encampment down'

WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidents of Northwestern and Rutgers universities defended their decisions to end pro-Palestinian encampments through negotiations rather than police force, telling a House committee on Thursday that they defused the danger without ceding ground to protesters.

“We had to get the encampment down,” Northwestern's Michael Schill said. “The police solution was not going to be available to us to keep people safe, and also may not be the wisest solution as we’ve seen at other campuses across the country.”

Schill and Jonathan Holloway of Rutgers were called before the House Education and the Workforce Committee as part of a series of hearings examining how colleges have responded to allegations of antisemitism.

Also testifying was Gene Block, chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, which has come under scrutiny for a delayed police response to violence between pro-Palestinian protesters and counterprotesters.

The committee’s inquiry expanded to large, public universities, UCLA and Rutgers, after earlier hearings largely focused on private, Ivy League colleges. Meantime, at Harvard's commencement Thursday, hundreds of students in graduation robes chanted “Free, Free Palestine” as they walked out of the ceremony. The school had announced on Wednesday that 13 students who participated in a protest encampment would not be able to receive diplomas alongside their classmates.

On Capitol Hill, committee Republicans accused the university leaders at the hearing of tolerating antisemitism, with particular scorn for Northwestern and Rutgers, where schools struck deals to end or limit protests.

Neither Northwestern nor Rutgers agreed to sever business ties with Israel — one of the protesters' chief demands. Rutgers agreed to discuss the topic; Northwestern revived a committee on “investment responsibility.”

Other terms focused on expanding institutional support for Muslim and Arab students and scholars on campus, and Rutgers promised not to retaliate against those who participated in protests.

“Each of you should be ashamed of your decisions that allowed antisemitic encampments to endanger Jewish students,” said Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the committee chair. "Mr. Schill and Dr. Holloway, you should be doubly ashamed for capitulating to the antisemitic rule breakers.”

The presidents considered police action but said it was not necessary.

“We made a choice — that choice was to engage our students through dialogue as a first option instead of police action,” Holloway said. “We had seen what transpired at other universities and sought a different way.”

Schill said students were willing to negotiate and reach a compromise that did not include divestment, their main demand. He said agreeing to a space for Muslim students where they could eat and pray, like other faith communities had on campus, was something he supported.

“We had students who were willing to negotiate and gave up their demands,” Schill said. “We said no, nothing that singles out Israel. Let’s think about what will make the university stronger."

Protesters hailed the agreements as victories. But on Capitol Hill, the presidents said they did not lose any ground.

“I would never recommend to the Board of Trustees divestment of anything or any academic boycott of Israel,” Schill said.

Even so, Foxx countered that Schill “created the perception” he would support divestment, “which encouraged other universities to cave on this.”

Each president denounced the rise of antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war. Schill and Block, who are Jewish, expressed their own disgust at some of the rhetoric and imagery used by protesters.

Block said public universities are in an especially tough bind as they work to shield students from discrimination while also upholding free speech. Unlike private universities, public universities are bound by the First Amendment. Even hateful speech must be protected, Block said, but UCLA draws the line when it crosses into threats and harassment.

He expressed remorse over the handling of a UCLA encampment that was attacked in early May. Counterprotesters threw traffic cones and released pepper spray in fighting that went on for hours before police stepped in, drawing criticism from Muslim students and political leaders.

“Tragically, it took several hours for law enforcement to quell the violence,” Block said “With the benefit of hindsight, we should have been prepared to immediately remove the encampment if and when the safety of our community was put at risk.”

On Wednesday, the police chief at UCLA was reassigned “pending an examination of our security processes,” according to a statement from the school.

A new pro-Palestinian encampment appeared on the UCLA campus as Block testified. “Our safety personnel are on-site and actively monitoring the situation,” Mary Osako, vice chancellor for UCLA Strategic Communications, said in a statement.

The encampment was abandoned when law enforcement arrived midday and declared it an unlawful assembly. Lines of officers pushed back a crowd of supporters that had gathered outside the encampment, but there were no clashes like those that occurred when a large camp was cleared three weeks earlier. A small group of demonstrators later staged a sit-in inside a nearby building before officers cleared them out.

As in previous hearings, Republicans pressed the leaders on discipline. They asked how many students had been expelled and how many faculty had been fired over antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel.

None of the presidents said students had been expelled, though they said there are dozens of ongoing investigations. Four students were suspended at Rutgers, Holloway said.

Schill said the numbers aren't a reflection of inaction.

“The fact that we didn’t have not yet suspended or expelled students does not mean that students have not received discipline,” he said. “There’s a wide range of discipline, and discipline has been meted out to many of those students.”

Tensions over the Israel-Hamas war have been high on campuses since the fall and spiked in recent weeks with a wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments that led to over 3,000 arrests nationwide.

After the first congressional hearings in December, an outcry of criticism from donors, students and politicians led to the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, who gave cautious, halting answers to questions about whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ conduct policies.

In April, the committee turned its attention to Columbia President Minouche Shafik, who took a more conciliatory approach to Republican-led questioning. Shafik’s concessions around faculty academic freedom upset students and professors at Columbia. Her testimony, and subsequent decision to call in police, escalated protests on campus that inspired students at other colleges to launch similar demonstrations.

Originally, the presidents of Yale University and the University of Michigan were called to testify on Thursday. But the committee shifted its attention to Northwestern and Rutgers after those colleges struck deals with pro-Palestinian protesters to limit or disband encampments.

Associated Press writers Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report. AP photographers Damian Dovarganes and Ryan Sun also contributed.

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University security officers block pro-Palestinian demonstrators from Dodd Hall on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

A University police officer blocks a doorway from pro-Palestinian demonstrators entering at Dodd Hall on the UCLA campus on Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Police block a doorway to pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Dodd Hall on the UCLA campus on Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

The Fire Marshal pushes his way through Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Dodd Hall on the UCLA campus on Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators disperse from Dodd Hall as requested by the police on the UCLA campus on Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and union activists discuss free speech on college campuses, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Northwestern University President Michael Schill testifies during a hearing of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block testifies during a hearing of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Northwestern University President Michael Schill testifies during a hearing of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block testifies during a hearing of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Northwestern University President Michael Schill testifies during a hearing of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway testifies during a hearing of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 23, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

FILE - Signs are displayed outside a tent encampment at Northwestern University on Friday, April 26, 2024, in Evanston, Illinois. Leaders from Northwestern University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Rutgers University are expected to testify before Congress on Thursday, the latest in a series of hearings spearheaded by House Republicans into how colleges have responded to pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford, file)

FILE - Demonstrators walk in an encampment on the UCLA campus after clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. Leaders from Northwestern University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Rutgers University are expected to testify before Congress on Thursday, the latest in a series of hearings spearheaded by House Republicans into how colleges have responded to pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, file)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Chinese Premier Li Qiang said he agreed with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday to properly manage their nations' differences as they emerge from a hostile era in which minister-to-minister contacts were banned and trade barriers cost Australian exporters up to 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year.

Li, Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China’s desire to invest in critical minerals.

Li, China’s most senior leader after President Xi Jinping, arrived in the South Australian state capital of Adelaide on Saturday and the national capital of Canberra late Sunday in the first visit to the country by a Chinese premier in seven years.

Li told reporters after Monday's meeting that the bilateral relationship was “on the right track of steady improvement and development.”

“We ... had a candid exchange of views on some differences and disagreements and agreed to properly manage them in a manner befitting our comprehensive strategic partnership,” Li said through an interpreter.

Albanese described the discussions as “constructive.”

“Australia advocates that we should all work together to promote a regional balance where no country dominates and no country is dominated,” Albanese said.

“I’ve made it clear as nations with different histories, political systems and values, we will cooperate with China where we can, disagree where we must and engage in the national interest,” the Australian leader added.

Their relations have improved markedly since Albanese’s center-left Labor Party was elected in 2022 following nine years of conservative government in Australia.

Most of the official and unofficial trade barriers Beijing introduced in 2020 on coal, cotton, wine, barley and wood have been lifted since Albanese was elected.

Beijing had banned minister-to-minister contacts as it froze out the previous Australian government diplomatically.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said before the meeting that he would raise the issue of China's ban on Australian rock lobsters and exports from two beef processing plants.

“The mere fact that we have the first visit by a Chinese premier, the second-most powerful person in China, ... since 2017 is an enormous opportunity to continue that dialogue, to continue stabilizing our relationship and address some of the outstanding issues,” Watt said.

Li planned to underscore China’s interest in buying a bigger stake in Australia’s critical minerals sector, which is essential to the global transition to renewable energy sources, by visiting a Chinese-controlled lithium processing plant in Western Australia state Tuesday.

Li visited New Zealand before Australia and is scheduled to stop in Malaysia late Tuesday before returning to China.

Australia shares U.S. concerns over China’s global dominance in critical minerals and control over supply chains in the renewable energy sector.

Citing Australia’s national interests, Treasurer Jim Chalmers recently ordered five Chinese-linked companies to divest their shares in the rare earth mining company Northern Minerals.

Watt said Chinese investment was not banned from the sector, but must meet national security criteria.

Albanese later told Li at a state lunch, "We won't always agree and the points on which we disagree won’t simply disappear if we leave them in silence.”

That appeared to be in response to a statement by Li, released by the Chinese Embassy in Canberra on Sunday, that he recommended “shelving differences” between the two countries in the interests of bolstering relations.

Earlier, Albanese had said he would raise with Li recent clashes between the two countries’ militaries in the South China Sea and Yellow Sea that Australia argues endangered Australian personnel.

Relations tumbled over Australian legislation that banned covert foreign interference in Australian politics, the exclusion of Chinese-owned telecommunications giant Huawei from rolling out the national 5G network due to security concerns, and Australia’s call for an independent investigation into the causes of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Benjamin Herscovitch, a China expert at Australian National University, said he did not expect China to get any firm commitments from Australia during Li’s visit.

Beijing would like to remove Australian opposition to China joining a trade bloc known as the CPTPP, more investment in Australian critical minerals and ambitious new cooperative agreements on science and technology, Herscovitch said.

But Australia had already made a concession to China in rebuilding relations through inaction by not imposing sanctions on Chinese entities that help Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, he said.

“Australia is essentially giving China a free pass on that issue,” Herscovitch said, while Australian allies, including the United States, Britain and the European Union were imposing sanctions.

Hundreds of pro-China demonstrators, human rights activists and democracy advocates have lined the routes of Li’s cavalcades in Adelaide and Canberra.

Pro China and pro Hong Kong supporters wait outside a winery where Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited in Adelaide, Australia, Sunday, June 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Kelly Barnes, Pool)

Police watch as pro China and pro Hong Kong supporters wait outside a winery where Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited in Adelaide, Australia, Sunday, June 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Kelly Barnes, Pool)

A pro-Hong Kong protestor holds a placard ahead of a visit by Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Adelaide Zoo, Australia, Sunday, June 16, 2024. Li is on a relations-mending mission with panda diplomacy, rock lobsters and China's global dominance in the critical minerals sector high on the agenda during his four day visit to Australia. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Pool Photo via AP)

Protesters hold placards ahead of the vist by Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Adelaide Zoo, Australia, Sunday, June 16, 2024. Li is on a relations-mending mission with panda diplomacy, rock lobsters and China's global dominance in the critical minerals sector high on the agenda during his four day visit to Australia. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shake hands at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, June 17, 2024. Li, Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China's desire to invest in critical minerals. (Mick Tsikas/Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, right, signs the visitor book as Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese looks on at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, June 17, 2024. Li, Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China's desire to invest in critical minerals. (Mick Tsikas/Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shake hands at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, June 17, 2024. Li, Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China's desire to invest in critical minerals. (Mick Tsikas/Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang signs the visitor book at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, June 17, 2024. Li and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China's desire to invest in critical minerals. (Mick Tsikas/Pool Photo via AP)

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, left, gestures to Chinese Premier Li Qiang after he signed the visitor's book at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, June 17, 2024. Li and Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China's desire to invest in critical minerals. (Mick Tsikas/Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang inspects a guard of honor outside Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, June 17, 2024. Li, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China's desire to invest in critical minerals. (Lukas Coch/Pool Photo via AP)

A gun salute as Chinese Premier Li Qiang inspects a guard of honor outside Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, June 17, 2024. Li, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China's desire to invest in critical minerals. (Lukas Coch/Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang inspects a guard of honor outside Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, June 17, 2024. Li, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China's desire to invest in critical minerals. (Lukas Coch/Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, right, speaks across the table to Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese during a leaders meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, June 17, 2024. Li, Albanese and senior ministers of both administrations met at Parliament House on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including lingering trade barriers, conflict between their militaries in international waters and China's desire to invest in critical minerals. (Lukas Coch/Pool Photo via AP)